Today in Comics History, February 9: Happy birthday, Jo Duffy!

Born on this day: comics editor and writer Jo Duffy, scripter on Power Man & Iron Fist, the '80s Marvel Star Wars, Fallen Angels, Crystar, Marvel Comics Presents, Marvel Fanfare, Catwoman, Glory, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark and much more!


from Mighty Marvel Calendar 1979 (Marvel, 1978)


from Marvel Age #26, 50, 87, and 98 (Marvel, May 1985, May 1987, April 1990, and January 1991); text by Jim Salicrup (#26), Mike Carlin (#50), and Chris Eliopolous and Barry Dutter (#87 and 98); pencils and inks by Ron Zalme; colors by Gregory Wright (#87) and Marie Javins (#98)
By the way, that last calendar panel is misleading (aka wrong). Duffy didn't write Akira, she did the English adaptation of the original work by Katsuhiro Otomo with translation by Yoko Umezawa.





Long-time comics fans may have seen Jo Duffy first in the back pages of comics, where she was a prolific letter-writer! (see also here, where we show that Jo knew the right way to write letters to the editor!)






from letter columns in (from top to bottom) Adventure Comics #440 (DC, July 1975), Avengers #132 (Marvel, February 1975), Iron Man #74 (Marvel, May 1975), [Uncanny] X-Men #98 (Marvel, April 1976), and Wonder Woman #216 (DC, February 1975)
Eventually she began working for Marvel, first as an assistant editor, and then a writer. Here she is meeting a cool exec!:


from Iron Man (1968 series) #103 (Marvel, October 1977), script by Bill Mantlo, pencils by George Tuska, inks by Mike Esposito, colors by Phil Rachelson, letters by Annette Kawecki
As associate editor of Epic Comics, she's just off-stage here scolding inflatable Archie Goodwin...but she still got dialogue!


from Dreadstar and Company #5 (Marvel/Epic, November 1985), script by Jo Duffy, pencils and inks by Archie Goodwin
Her most memorable cameo, though, was in the pages of Crystar (she wrote the entire series). Here's Jo, along with assistant editor Bob Harras, artist Ricardo Villamonte, and editor Ralph Macchio:



It was, of course, the infamous Assistant Editors' Month!



from The Saga of Crystar #5 (Marvel, January 1984), script by Jo Duffy, pencils by Ricardo Villamonte, inks by Dave Simons, colors by Andy Yanchus, letters by Janice Chiang
Now that you've seen her so much, you ought to be able to pick her out of this crowd of rampaging Marvel Editors!




cover of Marvel Age #35 (Marvel, February 1986) by James Fry and Tom Morgan
So, a very happy birthday to Jo Duffy (on the right)!


from Marvel Age #100 (Marvel, May 1991)